They were supposed to have an actual playtest kit/final beta, and now the 'vertical slice' will probably be like BNS's 'vertical slice' was, which will be a chunk, but there's a concern that it won't be enough to get a really good preview of it.

My client underpaid me. Itxs flat ratechildcare. It's written in the contract and policies. You only get a discount if I am sick. Period. So i wake up to being shorted what she perceived to be one days pay.

While I am on vacation. I just don't want to deal with her shit while I am on vacation. I really don't. I take 2 fucking days a year to get away from kids and dogs. Why could she not have paid the full fucking amount like everyone

Looks like I get to send a message to her and now debate if I tack on the five dollar fee or not for late payments. And i bet she will try this next week too.

So, there is a big push in Austin to build a giant fuckall stadium and a professional soccer team. Soccer. Everyone for it goes on and on about how stadiums help the local economy and how they bring in tourism and raise property values and blahblahblah. How this stadium will make people want to 'visit Austin'.

The stadium is soccer. How many Americans travel to soccer away games? (Hint: Not enough for a meaningful boost to Austin tourism.)

Austin is already the biggest tourism destination in Texas. If you're gonna visit a city in Texas for the sake of visiting a city in Texas, you go to Austin. A stadium won't change that.

What -really- pisses me off. Really, really pisses me off is that one of the other options for the plot of land (land the city owns and wants to -give- to the stadium folks) is low income housing. They could literally use this land to help keep people from becoming homeless, or even possibly uplift some of the homeless we have.

@auspice This is what always gave me the hives whenever my folks would gripe about me allowing other people to stay here. (Pre-Spider, nobody had ever done any damage or harm. After Spider? Yeah, I get the reluctance.)

While they're the most Fox News watchin'-est pair imaginable -- literally all day every day -- they go on often and at length about 'Catholic virtues of charity'. (Unless it might benefit somebody not white or straight or also Christian, but... <pained sigh to end all pained sighs>)

They finally shut up (until Spider) with: "I don't have cash to give, but I have space to spare, and I know people who need it, so get over it."

We've had folks moving cross-country looking for work and new homes, we've had someone fleeing an abusive marriage and a looking to start a new life, we've had people thrown out by their own families for reasons of different faiths or coming out as bi or recovering from a permanent injury -- the list goes on. Some folks brought people I barely knew or never knew before, so that crowd does include total strangers.

As a result, I just can't get the NIMBY attitude, since we've even had people crashing in the B that stands for Bedroom sometimes, not Back Yard.

@admiral
The real kicker is that stadiums depending on the size really don't do much to improve the local economy. Not sure of the size being discussed but when it comes to NFL sized venues they almost always cost more than they bring in for the city itself, and the area where businesses have significant benefits is only about a 3 to 4 block radius.

@admiral I don't own this house to have final say, or I'd consider it again. (Once Spider did $25k damage, well, "NO WAY IN HELL!" became a thing for anyone they also haven't known personally for more than a year.)

Sadly, at this point we really don't have space. 22+ years of two art packrats living in the same small house (about the size of a small two bedroom townhouse or decent sized 2br apartment) with my 'job' workspace thrown in sorta fucks everything up re: anything resembling a sane floorplan.

I remember when I bought my home off plan, the woman conducting the sale was so very proud, gloating really, about telling me how they had managed to get out of having to include any low cost housing in the development.

This in a city where I cannot walk a quarter of a mile to the shops without seeing multiple homeless beggars. It was disgusting.

until this conversation I had forgotten there even was professional soccer in the US. Maybe they're hoping there are more fans down that way? It seems like a terrible idea though, on par with Olympics hosting